Outsider (Revised)
by JanessaBess
Summary: Revised Version: After a a scouting mission outside the walls the Recon Corps discovers Katherina, a young woman from a village thousands of miles away who has managed to live for the last two years in titan territory. After Darius Zackly grants Hanji and the Survey Corps custody of the woman to study her and what she knows of the outside world things start to get a little tense.


"You were found in a tree? Without three dimensional maneuver gear, how did you get up there."

Katherina looked up at the man, confused. She wished someone would take the chains off her wrists, she struggled to shift them into a comfortable position where they didn't bite into her wrist bones, but the man before her appeared to ignore this completely. Resigned, she answered him with what she thought had been an obvious conclusion, "I climbed, sir."

"Climbed?" the man asked shocked, "Whatever for?"

Again, she gave what she thought was the obvious answer, "It's much easier to kill them, if you have height on them. You have to slice off the nape of their necks, and so if I dropped down from above, I could do this easier."

A few of the military court members sucked in breaths of shock; a woman without 3D maneuver gear taking down titans?

"And with what weapons did you kill these titans with, if you did not have in your possession, 3D maneuver gear?" By the tone of his voice she could tell that he thought the entire story was a fabrication.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe with the twin swords that your military confiscated when they decided a woman in a tree was a bigger threat than titans," she spit at him.

Another murmur came over the room, this time in shock at her tone. She could tell these men were mostly high ranking officials, so she doubted that they were talked to this way very often, but they were not _her_ superiors. Not to mention she had very little respect for anyone willing to put a woman in chains for simply trying to defend herself.

After a few moments a man on the left side of the room stood up.

"May I ask, where did you come from?" When she looked at him as if he had also asked a stupid question, he cleared his throat and spoke again. "I mean to say, where is your place of origin, you can't have lived your whole life in titan territory."

"I'm not from within these walls if that's what you're asking. My village was small, and had walls of its own, not nearly as high as yours though. They were broken by a scourge of titans about two years ago. There were a few survivors of the initial attack but most of them died of their injuries or of infection later on."

"You were the lone survivor then?" the man asked

Katherina shrugged, "As far as I know. I've been alone the past two years. My capture by your military was my first contact with another human since then."

The entire room began to light up with questions flying from all directions. A few of the people stayed silent, waiting to hear from the man who appeared to be the leader of the entire court. After a few moments of straining to hear specific questions, Katherina saw a woman step out onto the floor and walk towards her. A hush fell over the crowd as a few people leaned in to whisper to their neighbour, the rest focusing their attention on the brunette in front of them.

"Do you have a name?" the woman asked her rather pleasantly. Waves of excitement seemed to emanate from her.

"I was called Katherina, back in my village."

"Ah, Katherina! I am Hanji and I'm a squad leader with the Survey Corps," she explained, adjusting her glasses while using her other hand to motion to a group of people on the right side of the room. "We have been granted tentative permission to induct you into our squad so as to learn as much as possible from you about the farthest world outside our walls!"

The woman's enthusiasm was a bit shocking. While every face in the room looked grim, Hanji looked overjoyed. She seemed one step away from jumping with joy.

"Before you go," the man at the front of the room intoned, "Would you mind answering a few military related questions, if only just to satiate our curiousity."

"Yes, sir," Katherina nodded, she was still chained up so it wasn't likely they were going to give her a choice.

"How was it that your village was able to keep the titans out?"

Katherina sighed in earnest. She hadn't known much about the walls or the life of her village in general She had never gone to school or been educated by anyone other than her parents. They had always been told they were safe and that was all that had mattered. Until the day the wall was breached she had taken them for granted.

"We had walls, much like yours. They were higher than the tallest titans we had encountered, but not nearly as high as yours. We thought they were high enough though; we had never encountered a problem."

"How high would you say the walls were?" the man probed further.

Katherina tilted her head back, trying to conjure images she had been avoiding for the past two years, "Hmm, maybe about half as high as yours, perhaps a little less."

"Incredible, "Hanji said shaking her head in amazement. "And they were breached two years ago? How did that happen?"

"Yes, two years ago. I was 22, at the time, I believe and... We had riders who scavenged outside the walls. When they returned they claimed a large group of titans was heading our way. Those who were skilled in that sort of thing prepared for a fight, but it was useless. The wall was destroyed within minutes and most of the village was devoured... I saved my friend and my auntie, both had missing limbs that had been bitten off, but they were still alive. I did everything I could..." Her words choked off as she tried to regain her composure. "They both died within days of the breach."

Undeterred, another man in the crowd fired off more questions.

"So you have been alone since then? How did you survive? How are you even sure it's been two years?"

"I guess I survived like anyone did before the titans existed," Katherina answered, straightening her back, bringing herself up to her full height, although standing at five foot three, this was none to imposing to begin with. "I became a skilled hunter, I fished the rivers, I learned to avoid the titans and eventually discovered that by finding higher vantage points I could take them down by the weak point in their necks. Moon phases passed, just as they had in my village, and I kept moving constantly; I wouldn't even know how to find my village again, or what's left of it anyway."

The woman named Hanji looked disappointed. "You never found another weak point, aside from their necks?"

Katherina shook her head, "The fighters in my village knew about the necks, so that was all I knew as well. Though we didn't generally fight them, they were always a few men who wanted to prove something and so they would leave the walls. Most never made it back though."

Before Hanji could ask any more questions, the man who appeared to be in charge ordered silence in the room.

"That will be all for now. Squad leader, you may take Katherina back to the temporary headquarters. I'm sure between her and Eren you'll have your hands full."

The woman let out a squeal as she led Katherina out the door, mumbling to herself about what a great opportunity this would be and wondering whether Katherina might possess the same unimagined skill that Eren did. Who Eren was and what his skills happened to be was beyond her, but she was certain she would find out fairly soon.

By the time they reached the stables where the squad's horses were located, Katherina had completely tuned the woman out. Instead, she shifted her focus to a man who had appeared from inside the stalls leading two horses by the reins. When he held one out to her they both realized that her hands were still chained together behind her back and he motioned to Hanji to free them.

"Oh! How rude of me!" she giggled. "All this chit chat and I've left you all locked up!"

"Does the brat know how to ride a horse," the man asked, looking at Hanji as if Katherina weren't able to answer for herself.

She stepped toward him, her brown eyes locking with his own icy gaze as she grabbed the reins from him. He was short for a man, matching her own height. Without breaking her gaze she flung herself up into the saddle. In truth, it had been two years since she had ridden a horse, but she wasn't about to let that show. The man made a sarcastic sound in her direction as he mounted his own horse and then turned to smirk at her, kicking his horse forward. He gained speed quickly and before she even had much more of a chance to contemplate her own skill she too was riding fast; easily matching pace with the man. If she had turned back to look she would have seen that the rest of the squad was far behind them.

She could see that the man was urging his horse forward, trying to pull ahead, and suddenly her competitive instinct kicked into overdrive. She ducked low, squeezing with her thighs and kicked, feeling her horse's stride increase in speed, slightly overtaking him. As stupid as it was, she hated anyone doubting her. She heard him grunt and was about to turn and smirk at him when suddenly she was flying in the air. Her horse had stumbled, tripping and rolling across the ground as Katherina flew forward. In midair she attempted to turn herself around so that she could land on her feet but instead a shoulder caught her in the ribs, knocking her breathless.

"I was fine," she griped as the short man set her down. She turned away from him immediately and walked over to inspect her fallen horse, still lying on the ground.

"He's likely lame," the man told her in a blasé tone. "You pushed him too hard."

Katherina rounded on him, shouting right into his face, "If you hadn't been trying to outride me it wouldn't have happened!" She realized how incredibly childish she sounded, but didn't care.

The man just shook his head in response. "Don't try to pin this on me brat, get on my horse."

She was furious. Her pride hurt more than anything else but she was too embarrassed even to let that show. If he wanted to play games, he might win today, but she would be the ultimate victor. As she went to mount his horse, his hand caught her leather boot, helping her into the saddle. She resisted another childish urge to kick him.

"You know, I don't need your help. I survived two years on my own. I think I'll be fine mounting a horse."

The man just shrugged in response as she wrapped her hands around his waist and he snapped the reins. By now the rest of the squad had caught up to them and Hanji rode up beside them.

"Looks like you've met your perfect match, Levi!"

"Piss off Hanji," the man, apparently named Levi, answered, kicking his horse to move out of earshot of the brunette.


End file.
